Stream it now Camp 2003

 

i love this movie, its like our teenage version of rent, just called camp! lol i would never get sick of this movie, its awesome!

Three 8s in a row, I guess I am trying for luck also.

Camp is a musical with electrifying musical numbers, a talented cast, and a not so electrifying script. The film is on fire when all of these talented (and rather unknown) kids get together and perform. The movie is fantastic entertainment in that respect. Now as far as these individual characters are concerned, there are problems. Some are clearly defined like Michael (fantastically played by Robin De Jesus, who currently is stealing scenes in Tony winner for best musical In the Heights), and others just fall until the background until their song comes up. The film is also rather cliche and perhaps a little too safe, but again succeeds due to the power of its cast.

Yet honestly the film is so funny, moving, and touching that it doesn't matter. Despite a scene towards the end that really felt out of place the film is easy to watch and a good deal of fun too. Overall Camp is an underrated gem of a film that any Broadway lover should check out immediately.

amazon.com price: .70 cents plus 2.99 shipping.
good deal? I think so.

I just added a new movie to my top 3 most hated films of all time. Joining Lost in Translation and Dirty Dancing is the 2003 Stagedoor inspired flick "CAMP".

Or as I'd like to call it, AWFUL.

Being familiar with Stagedoor Manor, the camp which "CAMP" was based on, and having attended a similar institution as a child, I turned on this movie fully expecting a nice homage to a place where young people can be themselves and explore their personalities and interests. But instead I was completely blindsided by the horrendous script and exceedingly poor execution of this terrible excuse for an indie flick.

This film contains the most stilted and awkward dialog I've ever heard in a feature film. And I don't mean awkward in a fun, teenager way, I mean awkward in the way that some conversations just didn't make sense.

In other cases, character traits or flaws were mentioned in one scene never to be seen or heard about again; these traits and flaws had zero impact on the behavior of the characters and came completely out of left field.

Many key "plot points," in the film are not actually depicted, they are mentioned as necessary throughout to fill in the audience in a kind of "oh by the way" or "did you hear?" fashion. Instead, the script focuses on amateur and frankly boring musical covers by the less than impressive "campers." Also hindered by these overly-long and terribly-choreographed "show" scenes was the character development for the majority of the main characters. With the possible exception of Michael (Robin de Jesus), the campers and their theater teachers begin and end the film having experienced no personal changes, having undergone no transforming journey. Oh wait; one character does changes, however it wasn't over time brought on by understanding and acceptance, or simple cause and effect: it occurred in a matter of seconds, to suit the purpose of this hackneyed screenplay.

Probably the most horrible thing about the film was that there was no supervision of the handful of campers. In fact the only adults at the camp seemed to be two staff members, three instructors, and five musicians, none of whom ever appear as the campers run around all night, take off their clothes, make out, and have sex. And while I know, having attended and been a counselor at a camp like this, there are many real campers who have gotten away with such things and more, these particular campers seem carefree and careless about what they do; they don't have to sneak around or take any caution in their activities. In fact there are no consequences for anybody, whether they be drunkard counselors or campers trying, literally, to murder one another. Besides the obvious reasons this might be a problem, the no-holds-barred attitude of the campers kills any tension or intrigue in the campers revels.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know how this film got made at all. I know the place and I know it could make a great story if someone were to try it from a different angle, but this script didn't seem like it even made it to a second draft.

It's true what they say; you can't make a good film from a bad script, and in this case, the script was fucking atrocious. I looked around online after I read about it on IMDB and found that it had a budget of $1.8M. Oh, the better things I could make with a million dollars ...

It barely squeeked a 6 rating out of me, on my scale a 5.5/10. Fame goes to camp. On the plus side - some great singing voices among the cast members, and some good songs. That aspect is entertaining. The performances are very uneven. Some good (Joanna Chilcoat), most average, some poor (Daniel Letterle). It is overly sentimental, definitely cliche'd, should have and could have been better.

(0 out of 10)

*bottom 50 of all time*

(* 1/2): Thumbs Down

A Fame (1980) reject that is filled with bad acting.

I caught the movie Camp on cable one afternoon last week. It had some really great moments if you are a musical theatre geek like myself, fun preformances and bits from musicals...however, the acting was a wee sophomoric and not really for film. It would have been fun at a musical or something...it was that kind of acting. The final thing I will leave you with is images of teenagers who go to theatre camp hopping from bed to bed. Yikes. That and a lead character named Vlad to boot (like Vlad the Impaler...tres weird).

Then tonight my buds and I rented Waiting...which is mildly hilarious and very vulgar. You see the workers at a resturant do gross stuff to food, male workers exposing their genitalia to each other in a movie-long game and Andy Milonakis being completely stupid as usual. Especially with his gansta attitude. Laughable when we think of an overweight white kid who is really like 29 years old but plays the Gary Coleman card.

The high point of this movie is of course Ryan Reynolds (cute and vulgar simeltaneously) as quippy, smart-assed Monty.

That is all for now.

Laters.
Court

UMM........ random, but I liked it okay. Some parts were like what??, but other parts were cool.

I drive a bus and vans sometimes for students at the festival to and from classes, shows, and events a few times during the day. There are five of us, so it's not too crazy.

I'm taking an African Dance Repertory class with Sherone Price, from the African American Dance Ensemble. We get live musicians every day and I'm getting a lapa (sp??) made for me. It's a traditional West (I think) African skirt. Taking a voice and gesture class, sound design (using a computer for soundtrack making), body work (massage, theraband, acupressure stuff), release-y modern technique with Jen Nugent, and masters classes with choreographers from around the world. There are contact improvisation jams that I participate in sometimes here. I'm also working with another festival goer from France on a duet that has music, dance, speech, and dramatics (it's so quirky and cute!) in it. Really fun shit.

Drinking and partying, of course. :) There's a really fun gay bar in Raleigh (which is about a half hour from Durham) called "Legends" that I've been to a couple of times. There's a pretty strong gay scene here, for the south. We're also by a bunch of universities, including Duke of course, so the area is a little blue safe haven in the middle of a red region of the U.S., and generally alternative lifestyle friendly.

I'm also running, cycling, and swimming irregularly to make sure I can still do it. Don't know if I'm going to do Olympic Distance by September. Thinkin' I'll keep training to do it in November, but only actually do the Sprint Distance at Pacific Grove.

When I'm not too tired, I'm trying to read a little of the books I so aspiringly brought with me. Still trying to get through "Life of Pi." It's good, and I'm almost there but man, it's hard to stay awake sometimes.

who the fuck allowed them to wasted film on this shit? it was horrible! The acting sucked! the stage lighting sucked! The STORY sucked! IT ALL SUCKED!